I played this dan and I felt like I still need to know a lot of stuffs... well somehow it became a close game though he like got the WHOLE endgame for himself. That's why I posted this here hoping some dans can give some insights. Maybe my direction of play is bad at some parts? and how to handle the crosscut at the top left? That really surprised me. BTW my theory in this game is almost nil so yeah, you know what to expect lol Also, I would like some insights regarding the endgame because it seems that's where I lost a lot of pts...

I've put some of my own insights and also some questions in the sgf.




Btw, I'm around 1d-3k at worst. I have a 2d tygem (just made it 2d from 1d) and a wbaduk 2d and 9k (from 21k made to 9k so far and too many games needed lol)

I hope some dans can enlighten me. It's really so hard when you have to study all by yourself, you wouldn't know if what you're doing is right or where to improve... but I hardly know any dans personally that's why I tried posting here... I hope it's not a waste of your time to help and I thank you all in advance

Hi rouyakun,

Thanks EdLee

rouyakun, Good luck !

thanks for encouragement

Anyone care to comment on the game? I really wanna know my mistakes.

Hi rouyakun,

how about C3 directly ? Why do you feel the need to push here ?

since W backs up, I wonder if you should push one more.

I just saw it in a pro game that you could push there. But I'm not sure when to do it. I just thought I might get some forcing moves later on the outside so he will think twice about splitting when I pincer... which never happened because he got to secure it lol

I was surprised to check my database. There are 28 games with the jump down to G2 in this joseki. Most often (14 cases) Black just plays C3 but there are nearly as many games (12 cases) where Black tests White with the push at G3 first. Pushing forces White to decide whether to pull back or block at H3. If H3, naturally Black plays F2. If White pulls back as in the game, Black turns back to C3 without pushing again.

D5 is a good answer to E3 (which looks like a mistake) but how about E4? This keeps the Black stones connected but it allows White to capture D5. What happens if Black plays C5 ( in the diagram below) and connects D5 instead? If White goes ahead and connects at to cut, Black will cut in turn at . Although White can atari at and capture 4 stones with , Black ends up with a very big corner and White's shape is over-concentrated. If White approaches the bottom right corner now, Black will not pincer but rather attach underneath and happily take a second corner.

If White simply connects at 4 instead of 3, Black takes 3 in turn and has a much bigger corner than in the game plus the left side is still open. What do you think?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Connecting...
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 0 6 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O 4 5 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 2 X 1 X 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O 3 X O . O , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . O O O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

I often play the G2 jump in this shape, having seen what good results Andrew Kay got with it as hardly anyone seems to do the correct c4 push and do the inferior e3 or e2 instead. And as ez4u says, don't give white a ponnuki.

ez4u: That is indeed a nice looking variation. I thought white could capture the black stones which I thought was bad, but I didn't read that far ahead. Thank you for that nice variation.

Uberdude: And yeah, looks like I could have prevented the ponnuki but I was not too familiar with this kind of opening so I thought I was doing good because I connected both groups without getting too bulky.

Thank you for the responses and sorry for my late reply.

do you considered this one after crosscut? seems to work.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O . O X . . . . . X . O . X O . . |
$$ | . . X O X X O . O , . . . . O O X 1 . |
$$ | . . X . O X X . . . . . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O O O . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

This misses a big chance, I think. Play at K2 and the white group to the left is going to have to run out. Since White already has a weak group on the left side, you should be in good shape for a strategy. If you play the pincer, you have to think in these terms.

In general, tactics don't solve everything. You need to occupy key points ahead of your opponent.